Hot weather remains favourable for Russia's grains, the head of weather forecaster Hydrometcentre said on Wednesday, indicating that the country is still on track to harvest the largest grain crop in its post-Soviet history. Russia, a major global wheat exporter to North Africa and the Middle East, may harvest up to 110 million tonnes of grain this year, according to the agriculture ministry, up 2 million tonnes from the record crop of 2008.
"Everything tells us that the crop will be very good," Roman Vilfand, the head of Hydrometcentre, told a media conference in Moscow. Russia's southern regions, the main wheat producing and exporting area, face temperatures of between 32 and 39 Celsius degrees (89.6-102.2 Fahrenheit) in the next seven days, he added.